Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes our brother:

To God’s church at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours.

In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you,

so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

What I am saying is this: Each of you says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”

Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name?

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.

For it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts.

Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?

Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom,

because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,

But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

But as it is written:

What eye did not see and ear did not hear,
and what never entered the human mind—
God prepared this for those who love Him.

Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.

because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness;

and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless.

A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God’s mysteries.

In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one of them be found faithful.

It is of little importance to me that I should be evaluated by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even evaluate myself.

For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. The One who evaluates me is the Lord.

Therefore don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us—and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you!

For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!

I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Now some are inflated with pride, as though I were not coming to you.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife.

For though I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already decided about the one who has done this thing as though I were present.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?

Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside?

Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest cases?

I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between his brothers?

Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?

“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be brought under the control of anything.

“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh.

But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Run from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body.” On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

Now in response to the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have relations with a woman.”

I say the following as a concession, not as a command.

I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am.

But if they do not have self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.

I command the married—not I, but the Lord—a wife is not to leave her husband.

But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband—and a husband is not to leave his wife.

But I (not the Lord) say to the rest: If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not leave her.

Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not leave her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is set apart for God by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart for God by the husband. Otherwise your children would be corrupt, but now they are set apart for God.

But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

However, each one must live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him. This is what I command in all the churches.

For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave.

About virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I do give an opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

Therefore I consider this to be good because of the present distress: It is fine for a man to remain as he is.

And I say this, brothers: The time is limited, so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none,

those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess,

and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.

I want you to be without concerns. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord.

But a married man is concerned about the things of the world—how he may please his wife—

and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.

Now I am saying this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but because of what is proper and so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.

But if any man thinks he is acting improperly toward his virgin, if she is past marriageable age, and so it must be, he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

But he who stands firm in his heart (who is under no compulsion, but has control over his own will) and has decided in his heart to keep his own virgin, will do well.

A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wants—only in the Lord.

But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my opinion. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.

But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

About eating food offered to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.”

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as there are many “gods” and many “lords”—

yet for us there is one God, the Father.
All things are from Him,
and we exist for Him.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
All things are through Him,
and we exist through Him.

However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.

Then the weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge.

My defense to those who examine me is this:

Or do Barnabas and I alone have no right to refrain from working?

For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned with oxen?

Or isn’t He really saying it for us? Yes, this is written for us, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should do so in hope of sharing the crop.